CHAPTER ONE
San Diego, California
Petty Officer Lennox Thompson, U.S. Navy SEAL, forced his foot to ease up on the gas pedal as he headed west on Interstate 8, realizing he’d been going almost eighty-five miles an hour. Taking a breath, he got his speed down below seventy.
“Calm down,” he muttered to himself. “You won’t do Talia any good if you get pulled over for reckless driving before you even get to the police station.”
Glancing at the clock on the dash, he saw that he was still at least ten minutes away from the Western Division Police Department. Maybe more with the typical late evening San Diego traffic. He hated Southern California traffic at the best of times, but right then, when he was trying to get to Talia as fast as he could, he absolutely despised it.
Fifteen minutes ago, Lennox had been at a housewarming party hosted by his buddy and fellow SEAL, Colt Hughes, and his new girlfriend, Kira Babin. Then his phone rang, and in a heartbeat, everything had changed. Talia Holland was at the police station, and she was in trouble. She hadn’t gone into details over the phone but said she needed his help.
Lennox had met Talia two months ago when he and his fellow SEALs had been assigned to protect Bogdan Rybak, aformer Belarusian politician who’d sought asylum in San Diego with his wife and their two daughters after surviving multiple assassination attempts because of his anti-Russian political leanings. An au pair to their six-year-old daughter, Talia was on the quiet side until some bad guys had threatened the little girl she took care of. Then she turned fiery and fearless. It was both admirable and adorable and Lennox had been attracted to the beautiful, dark-haired woman from that moment on.
While he’d been protecting the family, he and Talia had flirted a little—when they weren’t arguing. Or maybe their arguing was flirting? Lennox wasn’t exactly sure. It seemed Talia was impervious to his charm until she’d stunned him by finally agreeing to go out with him. One date, she said, to show him that they had nothing in common and no reason to spend any more time with each other.
Challenge accepted.
But it turned out that fitting a date into his hectic SEAL work schedule was harder than he’d realized. If it wasn’t a mission in some far corner of the globe, it was an unannounced training exercise. And in those cases when Lennox was available, Talia wasn’t. In between taking Maria to play dates and birthday parties and the playground, she always seemed to be busy.
Exiting off the interstate onto Banks Street, Lennox felt his heart beat faster as he turned into the police station parking lot.
Time to figure out what the hell was going on.
Unfortunately, it looked like he was going to have to wait a little longer because when he went inside and gave his name to the burly desk sergeant, the man told him to have a seat in the lobby with everyone else until someone could talk to him. The detached tone in the sergeant’s voice set off warning bells in the back of Lennox’s head as he sat down in one of the plastic chairs in the front row. There was something weird going on here.
Was Talia hurt?
Was she in trouble?
The thought that the answer to either—or both—of those questions might beyesmade his gut clench.
A few minutes later a man in a suit stepped into the lobby and glanced around the room. At a discreet gesture from the desk sergeant, the man locked in on Lennox, heading his way.
Lennox stood, meeting him halfway.
“You Lennox Thompson?” the man asked, sticking out his hand. Shorter than Lennox, he had blond hair touched with gray and a curious look on his face. “I’m Detective Russell Green. I wanted to have a few words with you before I brought you back to see Ms. Holland. I understand the two of you are close?”
Lennox had to force himself not to react to that question, making what was probably a foolish assumption that Talia had said something to lead the detective to believe there was something serious going on between them.
“Is Talia okay?” Lennox asked, shaking the detective’s hand and avoiding the whole defining the relationship thing.
“She’s fine,” Detective Green said, either not noticing Lennox had blatantly avoided the question, or simply deciding not to comment on it. “Rattled, of course. But that’s to be expected when you get chased down a dark alley by someone.”
“What?!” Lennox nearly shouted, ignoring the interested looks from the other people in the lobby. What the hell had Talia gotten herself into, and why hadn’t she said anything over the phone? “Who was chasing her and why?”
Green held up his hand in a placating gesture obviously meant to calm Lennox down. Taking his arm, the detective guided him off to the side of the lobby and away from the half dozen other people in the waiting area, as if the few feet of separation would somehow keep them from eavesdropping.
The man motioned Lennox toward a cluster of hard plastic chairs in the corner, taking one for himself. “As far as who waschasing her, we don’t know yet. We have a description, and your girlfriend is in the back right now going through the digital mug shots, but truthfully, I’m not holding out much hope that will lead anywhere. And as far as why she was being chased, that’s the part I wanted to talk to you about.”
Lennox frowned. “I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying. Did Talia do something wrong?”
He was more than a little baffled by the detective’s behavior. The fact that he’d come out here made it pretty clear he wanted to talk without Talia overhearing them. But why?
Green held up a hand again, probably assuming that Lennox was getting upset about hisgirlfriendbeing accused of something. “I’m not saying that Ms. Holland did anything wrong. It’s just that she’s been saying some rather outlandish stuff about the man who chased her. Stuff that makes me think she might be making it up.”
Lennox didn’t know Talia all that well, but she’d never given him the impression that she was into flights of fancy. He couldn’t be sure one way or the other until he had more facts to work with though.
“Maybe you should tell me about what happened with Talia,” he suggested.
